Writing secure code

What Hacker News says

1. StressedDevMay 2023
   A small correction on the redo step.

   What you are talking about was called the Windows Security Push and this is how it worked. Basically, every developer (not just the senior ones) had to help review every line of code in Windows. First, we were shown presentations which explained why security was important, where Microsoft products had failings, what were common security bugs and how to look for them. I think the presentations were done my Michael Howard. They were very good.

   Then we were given a copy of Writing Secure Code to read. It enumerated all of the know types of security vulnerabilities and told us how to fix them. It also taught us how to write a threat model, validate input from untrusted sources, reduce our attack surface, use the principal of least privilege, etc.

   Finally, we spent three months reviewing Vista's code. Each team was responsible for reviewing its own code. We filed bugs as we found them and then they were fixed.

   Note that porting the security fixes to Longhorn from Windows XP took very little work. Windows had one code base and you could move changes from release A to release B (Windows XP and Windows Vista in this case).

   Also, Longhorn was reset at some point but all of the work was not thrown out. Basically, some teams reduce the scope of their work (i.e. cut features) and some projects were cancelled. The reset did not occur because the security fixes were missing. It ocucred because Longhorn was an out of control project which had been going on for 2 to 3 years and was not close to shipping.

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2. pjmlpDec 2019
   Yes, you need to dive into books like

   Writing Secure Code

   https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Secure-Second-Developer-Pract...

   Secure Programming Cookbook for C and C++

   http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596003944.do

   SEI CERT C Coding Standard

   https://wiki.sei.cmu.edu/confluence/display/c

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3. sneakpeekJun 2015
   Ask HN: I picked up a coworker's book today - Writing Secure Code by David LeBlanc and Michael Howard. I immediately went to a chapter on buffer overruns because I've always heard this is a major source for security issues, but never knew why. I was surprised and pleased when the authors immediately showed code examples in C of how to exploit buffer overruns. I liked being able to see a concrete example of why certain code is a security risk. What are some good [introductory] book(s) that give concrete examples of vulnerable code?
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